I wrote after the Billups/Iverson trade that I was on board with it. I have always been a huge Iverson fan, first of all, and, more importantly, I am an even bigger fan of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire and several other high profile free agents in 2010 who the Pistons can now pursue.

Devin Harris will probably surpass Billups by next season, but this is his first full season in New Jersey playing for a coach that gives him free reign. But other than Paul, Williams and possibly Harris and Derrick Rose for their future potential, what point guard in the NBA right now would you rather have running your team?

Denver is 13-5 with him, Detroit is 7-8 without him, which should have been really predictable.

But think back a little, about what would have went wrong for the Pistons if Billups had been traded for Iverson two years ago, Flip Saunders never would have made it out of Detroit alive.

Brown is known for being extremely overbearing when it comes to his point guards (there is a reason he works best with Eric Snow and other guys who are not stars). Billups was already an established, pretty good NBA player when Brown took over. If Chauncey did not buy in and take the verbal lashings, do you think anyone else on the team would have put up with Brown's crankiness?

As I said, the trade made sense for the future of the team and was a good move in that respect. But the aftermath shows just how little respect many Pistons fans had for just how good Billups is.